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Personality

- is the total pattern of enduring
- characteristic ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving that constitutes the individuals distinctive method of relating to their environment
-is influenced by heredity AND environment

Study of Personality

-is concerned with differences in behavior between individuals and with consistencies in behavior between an individual
-personality psychologists study the structure and dynamic of personality

-sigmund freud
-people are born with basic needs or instincts
-sexual and agressive drives are major motivators of human behavior
-personality develops out of each person's struggle to meet their needs in a world that often frustrates these efforts
-3 parts of personality = id, ego, superego - they are usually in conflict with eachother
-psychosexual theory of personality development

criticisms of psychodynamic theory

neofreudians - erik erikson (psychosocial theory of personality development)
added new theoretical views.
1. personality continues to develop throughout life
2. too much emphasis on the importance of sexual instincts
3. idea that people pass through stages in childhood that determine their adult personality has little research support
4. Freud's research based on a small sample of upper middle class Austrians
5. Freud's theory is too vague to test, problems with definitions (id, ego, superego)

1. reality principle - instinctual energy is restrained to maintain individual safety and integration into society - acts as a buffer between the world and the primitive id
2. secondary process thinking - rational, logical, and reasonable part of the personality
3. ego defence mechanisms
-unconscious process (involve self-deception) that help the ego reduce or avoid anxiety
- the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
-most of the time, these mechanisms function as healthy ways to suppress anxiety
-problematic if they prevent the person from effectively dealing with reality.

-has 2 parts
1. ego ideal - "shoulds" - represents the "perfect person" we wish we were
2. conscience - "should nots" - evaluates right from wrong and prevents us from behaving in a morally improper way

- develops around age 5 - oedipal conflict (identify w father,internalize his values)
-superego is influenced by parents, teachers, and other significan figures.

labido (sexual energy) - gets fixated when too much or too little gratification
you develop personality characteristics based on the distribution of the labido energy among the 5 psychosexual stages.

psycho social theory of personality development

-erik erikson

1. at each stage the person is presented with a social crisis or conflict

2. how you resolve the crisis influences how your personality develops.

trait theory

-Gordon Allport
-believed traits led to relatively consistent behavior patterns that the person is likely to show in a wide variety of situations.
-internal trains are consistent across situations and time
-traits are relatively stable, consistent and enduring tendencies that predispose people to behave in a particular way
-traits guide or influence behaviors
-traits are never quite the same (unique) from on individual to the next
-peole vary in the extent to which a trait is characteristic of them
-18,000 traits

Raymond cattell

-part of trait theory
-reduced allport's trait list down to 171 & then finally to 16 personality factors or dimensions
- he used a statistical technique called factor analysis
-big 5 or five factor model - personality is organized around 5 basic factors - these are thought to be the most important components of personality

(skinner)
- based on the idea that the keys to understanding development are observable behavior and outside environmental stimuli. Behaviorists reject the idea that people universally pass through a series of stages.
-they view development as occurring because of continuous explosure to specific factors in the environment
-behavior/personality is learned through reinforcement or punishment of particular response tendencies in different situations.

social cognitive theory

-albert bandura

-Focus on how our thinking affects our behavior as well as how our behavior and its consequences affect our thinking and future actions
- bandura called this interaction "Reciprocal Determinism"
-personality is shaped by an ongoing interaction of 3 factors (reciprical determinism)
1. situation/environment
2. thoughts/feelings
3. behavior

Humanistic theory

-Abraham Maslow & Carl Rogers
-personality is determined by the unique ways in which each individual views the world
- to explain people's action it is important to understand their views of the world rather than their instincts, traits, or learning experiences

evolutionary perspective

-seeks to identify behavior in today's humans that is the result of our genetic inheritance from our ancestors
-grew out of the work of charles darwin who argued in "the origin of the species" that a process of natural selection creates traits in a species that are adaptive to their environemtn
- agrues that our genetic inheritence determines not only such physical traits as skin and eye color, but certain personality traits and social behaviors (such as shyness or jealousy)

- a test in which a person is shown an ambiguos stimulus and asked to describe it or tell a story about it
- no clear right or wrong answer
-answers thought to be a projection of unconscious needs, fantasies, conflicts
-rorschach test (ink blot)
-tat

observation - behavioral assessment

-direct measures of an individual's behavior used to describe characteristics indicative of personality

criticism of evolutionary theory

Criticism:
- Pays too little attention to environment and social factors.
- No way to test the theories.

study of health psych

-study the relationship between psychological behavior and phsycial health and illness

emphasis on:
1. enhancing health
2. prevention of disease

-studies how behavior contributes to recovery from illness

-looks at how psychological factors influence diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of illness

stress

-likely to occur whenever a person has to make adjustments or adapt their behavior to the environment
-a normal part of every person's life
-absence of stress = death
-stress is not always bad

stressor

-any event or situation that requires people to adjust to it in some way

-can be imaginary (student imagines test will be hard)
-fearful anticipation - is usually worse than actual realization

seymour epstein

-the time of greatest stress is not necessarily when danger is at its height

ex. parachutist - greatest stress was when they were anticipating making the jump

-stress occurs in situations in which we feel/perceive our self in conflict or threatened beyond our capacity to adapt, cope, or endure
-

how do we determine stressfulness of each situation?

ultimately stress depends upon how a situation is perceived
-it is not the events themsevles, but how we appraise/erceive them that influences their stressfulness
-the same situation is not stressful to everyone (ex. work, childbirth, wedding, public speaking, test taking)
- perception is subjective...viewing something as a challenge versus a threat

richard lazarus

-Cognitive-meditational theory - says the way people think about and appraise a stressor is a major factor in how stressful that particular stressor becomes
-there is a 2 step process in assessing the degree of threat or harm of a stressor and how one should react to that stressor
1. primary appraisal - involves estimating the severity of the stressor and classifying it as a threat, a challenge, or a harm or loss that hs already occured
2. secondary appraisal - if threat or harmful effect is perceived, you then must estimate the resources you have available for coping with the stressor - if resources are perceived as adequate or abundant, the degree of stress will be considerably less than if resources are missing or lacking.

-stress take its toll on our bodies (stomachaches, headaches, backaches)
-on our interest in, productivity, and enjoyment of life and work
-and may contribute to more serious conditions such as ulcers, high blood pressure, heart attack, or stroke

social readjustments rating scale

- (SRRS)
- Holmes & Rahe
- stressfullness of the situation depends on the amount of change person undergoes
-Life change units - any disruption of our daily routine causes stress
- good things that happen to us as well as the bad things can cause stress because they carry with them adjustment demands
-studied teh relationship b/w stressfull life event and the development of illness
-high scores are associated w/ increased risk of accident or illness

criticism of srrs

-research suggests the SRRS is only a modest predictor of future health problems
1. events are not equally stressful to all perception of stress is very personal and subjective
2. stress is not the only variable affecting susceptibility to illness
3. holmes & rahe focused mainly on major, fairly dramatic life events not daily hassles

when we feel forced to speed up, intensify, or shift the direction of our behavior, or to meet a higher standard or performance

boredom

-understimulation. (routine factory line worker - too much routine and too little variety - putting one small part on the car all day everyda - can experience stress)

trauma

the shocking physical or emotional experience such as rape or death of the family emember can be a devastating stressor

change

positive or negative can be a mjor stressor

severity of stress

determined primarily by 3 factors
1. characteristics of the situation
2. characteristics of the individual
3. external resources and support

characteristics of the situation

-strenght of conflicting forces
- presence of a threat/imminence of an anticipated threat
0unfamiliaryity and suddenness of the problem
-controlability
-predictability
-level of challenge or threat to one's capabilities or self concept

controlability

-stressors usually have less impact if people can exert some control over them
-it seems that just believing that a stressor can be controlled can reduce the stressor's effect
- faith
-people who have some control over unpleasant events show lower stress levels than those who feel they have no control

-people who do not think they have control over stressors often devlop feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. that promote depression or other mental disorders or vulnerability to physical disease.

-unpreditable events are more stressful vs. predictable ones
-ex: law enforcement b/c of unpredictable nature of work

-reserach w/ rats indicates that predictability of stressful events (ex warning b4 shocks) leads to fewer stressful reactions
-predictable stressors may have less impact because they give the person time to mobilize resoruces to cope with the stressors

irving janus

stress innoculation
-giving surgical patients information about what will happen during surgical procedures, the pain or disability they can expect after procedures, and ways to reduce pain or overcome disaiblity greatly improves their adjustment surgery
-patients experience less distress b4 and after surgery, able to leave hospital sooner, required less meds, expreinced less pain then patients not given the info
-gives patinets a sense that they can control certain aspect of their experience to reduce their pain - and if not it give them a sense of predictability - less anxious .. more relaxed
ex. lamaze childbirth

characteristic of the individual

A. stress tolerance
B. hardiness - commitment, control, challenge
C. Degree of competence
D. optimism/pessimism - you dont have to feel in control so long as you expect everything will turn out ok
E. stress can be self-imposed - perfectionism/exceptionality/unrealistically high standards

-not as intense as the Alarm Stage, but bodily levels of hormonal secretion are still above normal
-occurs during the stress response and if stressor is removed helps return the body to normal levels

GAS stage 3

exhaustion

-resistance all but ceased
-bodily systems have been depleted due to prolonged resistance
-can bring baout the threat of onset of "diseases of adaptation"

acute stress disorder

-symptoms being w/in four weeks of event and last for less than one month

post traumatic stress disorder

symptoms can begin at any time following the event but must last for longer than one month
-re-experience original trama in nightmares or vivid memories
-flashbacks
-symptoms include recurring bouts of anxiety, irritability, jumpiness, headaches, dizziness, sexual dysfunction
-emotinal numbness/guilt/depression
may develop form acute stress disorder